The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) seeks applications by Dec. 2, 2013 from interested Ph.D. nursing students who will have completed their doctoral coursework by August 2014. The NINR Graduate Partnerships Program (GPP) provides funding for fellowships at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Bethesda, MD campus to begin dissertation research related to symptom management, health promotion, disease prevention, tissue injury and genetics. The fellow's academic advisor and an NIH scientist serve as co-mentors for the dissertation process. Visit:www.ninr.nih.gov/GPP for more information or send an email with "NINR GPP" in the subject line to NINRIRPTraining@mail.nih.gov.
~Watch a recent alumna talk about her experience

Check out the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) information portal that provides clinical quality measures, meaningful use data, information models, value sets, and health information technology standards (HIT). The U.S. Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK) has an easy-to-use search bar and will soon undergo a web redesign. You can sign up for email updates and choose your subscriber preferences.

The Office of Nursing Research and Scholarship (ONRS) will kick off the first in a series of noon research seminars. On Thursday, Sept. 5. at noon in Weaver-Densford, room 6-194, Dr. Ulf Bronas, will present an "Overview of Opportunities Available through the SoN Laboratory of Clinical Physiology." Dr. Bronas is an exercise and applied physiology researcher who currently collaborates on six grant projects relating to how exercise impacts and improves the health of persons with multiple or chronic conditions.

On Oct. 2, 2013 at noon in WDH 6-108, join UMN Health Sciences Librarian Jim Beattie and Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) training coordinator Frances Spalding for an overview of two grant management tools: MyNCBI and the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR). The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) hosts a variety of database resources including PubMed. MyNCBI is a tool that saves searches and citations into a customized "My Bibliography" bookshelf that makes it easier to comply with Public Access Policy requirements. The RPPR is a module in the eRA Commons to submit required progress reports on NIH-funded grant projects.

Just in time for the Minnesota State Fair, Aug. 22 - Sept. 2, you can download the UMN Academic Health Center 'Health Quest' iOS app to help support UMN presence. AHC Communications describes the app as "a photo scavenger hunt that allows users to take photos of specific items around the fair." To promote better understanding of the health sciences, clues for each item relate to the broad impact of health in Minnesota. Prizes for participation include a weekly drawing for an iPad Mini and a daily drawing for an iPod shuffle. Learn more.
~Minnesota State Fair develops its own app

Apply now for the fall Grant-in-Aid Program coordinated by the UMN Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) to support faculty research, scholarly and artistic activities. Proposals must be submitted to ONRS by Sept. 16 so that electronic submission to OVPR is completed by Sept. 19, 2013. Learn more.

This spring the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it will start enforcing the 2008 Public Access Policy requiring that peer-reviewed journal articles relating to an NIH-funded grant are required to have a PubMed Central library reference number (PMCID).The Office of Nursing Research and Scholarship (ONRS) has a PMCID intranet page and is updating faculty biographical sketch templates with available information.

Principal investigators are responsible for associating publications with NIH awards and to track public access compliance. A first step is to create a National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)MyNCBI account replacing the eRA Commons method of bibliography management. Although this policy is designed to increase public access to medical research, it is not intended to infringe on copyright agreements with editors and publishers. More than 300 journals automatically arrange to obtain PMCIDs; varying embargo periods and restrictions apply depending upon the journal.
~PMC citation search tool
~Becker Medical Library PMCID guide

In an Aug. 14 MinnPost opinion column Dr. Brian Herman, UMN Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), wrote about the possibility of an 'innovation deficit' in Minnesota as a result of sequestration and federal research funding cuts. Learn more.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has published a frequently asked question list based on individual questions submitted about their educational "Researcher Training and Workforce Development in Methods and Standards for Conducting Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Studies" (R25) grant. Letters of intent are due Aug. 20 for the RFA-HS-14-004 funding opportunity and deadline to apply is Sept. 27, 2013. The purpose of this initiative is to develop a multi-component education program using patient-centered outcomes research that will develop researchers in the scientific discovery toward improved health outcomes.

The umbrella organization of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has updated 'parent' R01, R21 and R03 guidances to include a full roster of organizations (in some instances this will make it more competitive) for updated or reissued announcements. On occasion, the NIH will reissue 'parent' announcements with additional conformance requirements. Applications that do not follow the reissued or updated guidance may be delayed or not accepted for review.

Biomedical informatics R01 funding will be available from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for projects that produce concepts, tools and approaches to advance how informatics are used to improve health. Funding will not exceed $250,000 per year in direct costs for a maximum of 4-year projects and the number of awards depend upon National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget appropriations. Deadline to apply is Nov. 5, 2013. See the PAR-13-300 announcement for details.

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) issued a notice to clarify funding opportunities that investigate kidney, urologic, metabolic and digestive disease. Specifically, NIDDK will support investigator-initiated, multi-center studies through a two-part process that involves a U34 mechanism, followed by a cooperative U01 agreement to conduct research. NIDDK is not accepting applications through its PAR-12-265/R01 mechanism but continues to offer the following R21 opportunities:Pilot and Feasibility Clinical Research Grants in Kidney or Urologic DiseasesPAR-11-352Pilot and Feasibility Clinical Research Studies in Digestive Diseases and NutritionPA-12-157Exploratory/Developmental Clinical Research Grants in ObesityPA-12-179

NIDDK confirmed that all multi-center clinical studies must complete this two-part process. The U34 cooperative agreement will provide up to two years of support, however, it does not a guarantee funding for a subsequent U01 application. See the NIDDK website for further information and instruction on the U34 exemption process.
~Notice of Q&A webinar on U01 process

The National Institutes of Health Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR) has announced funding opportunities for projects that will research causes and solutions to health and disability disparities in the U.S. population:

Behavioral and Social Science Research on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities(R21)PA-13-288
Deadline: Oct. 16, 2013

Behavioral and Social Science Research on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities(R01)PA-13-292
Deadline: Oct. 5, 2013

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is offering U01 funding to renew and expand intervention testing programs that will extend or improve lifespan. The RFA-AG-14-011 notice indicates that NIA intends to commit $4.8 million total costs in fiscal year 2014 to fund up to 3 awards. Deadline to apply is Oct. 22, 2013.

On Aug. 1, 2013 the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and its affiliates published a notice (NOT-HL-13-187) of upcoming collaborative grant opportunities to encourage partnerships that will address low cost, pragmatic and randomized clinical trial management. The UH2 and UH3 grants will facilitate cooperative projects that are integrated into existing clinical practice or leverage established electronic patient care resources. Applications are not yet being accepted but the notice allows for sufficient time for researchers to begin to discuss cooperative agreements.

The UMN Academic Health Center (AHC) is requesting applications for AHC Small Grants
to fund faculty research for up to $30,000 per award. Funds are distributed through a competitive peer review process. Assistant, Associate or Full Professors in the AHC can apply for a seed grant. Principal investigators with active NIHR01 grants (or equivalent federal grant) that may experience a lapse in funding can apply for a transition grant. Deadline to apply is Sept. 20, 2013. Faculty who have a current AHC seed or transition grant as of July 2013 are not eligible to submit an application for the new fiscal year. AHC Small Grant 2013.pdf

In January 2012 the Office of Nursing Research and Scholarship (ONRS)collaborated with the School of Nursing Diversity Committee for a recorded book review and discussion about "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. The book describes how Ms. Lack's cells (known to researchers as HeLa) were used in medical research that resulted in a collision between ethics, race and medicine in terms of scientific discovery and the need for bioethics. On Aug. 7, 2013 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it had reached a collaborative agreement with the Lacks family on HeLa genome privacy and data access.
~Book trailer
~Aug. 7, 2013 NIH director's blog by Dr. Francis Collins
~Aug. 7, 2013 NY Times article "A Family Consents to a Medical Gift, 62 Years Later"
~Aug. 7, 2013 Chronicles of Higher Education "NIH Reaches Pact with Family of Woman on Access to DNA Data from Her Cells"
~Aug. 7, 2013 Star Tribune article "Family of Woman Whose Cancer Cells Became Famous Has Been Given a Say in Some Research"
~Aug. 7, 2013 NPR clip "Decades After Henrietta Lacks' Death, Family Gets a Say on Her Cells"
~Aug. 8, 2013 NPR Morning Edition interview with Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director

On Aug. 6, 2013 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that Minnesota is among 19 states showing a decline in obesity rates among preschoolers from lower income families. CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said that "while the changes are small, for the first time in a generation they are going in the right direction."
~Aug. 7, 2013 MinnPost article about Minnesota statistics
~Aug. 6, 2013 New York Times op-ed about the room for more significant improvement